It's not my fault

Legendary Saatchi's London creative Paul Arden, author of It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be: The World's Best Selling Book died today due to a heart attack. his book are genius. In tribute, from Commercial Archive here are some thoughts from the man himself.

- Blame no-one, but your self, if you have touched something accept total responsibility for that piece of work. If you accept responsibility you are in the position to do something about it. If you are involved don't blame others.
- Know your clients aims We are trained to think advertising is all about selling products. That is often not the case. The motivation may be quite different. Always find out what a client wants to advertise for.
- Do not covert your ideas Give away everything and more will come back to you. They are not your ideas anyway they are God's.
- When the client wont buy, do it his way, then do it your way Very often having given him what he wants he will give you what you want. There is also the possibility he may be right.
- Do it first, don't ask and be prepared to take the consequences A new idea, is either silly, unfamiliar or both. It cannot be judged by description, it cannot even be judged as a storyboard. It needs to be done to exist. No one will sanction the cost, therefore you have no choice but to do it whatever the cost.